S:
Hello Andylon. This is my first interview in my whole life so
please be kind - lol
A: lol - Don’t be
afraid of me, I won’t bite you, you also you look very nice.
S:
hahaha. My producer told me that he had a nice conversation
with you yesterday.
And he wants me to send you best wishes…
A: oh it was great;
he gave us some inside views. Please tell us something about
yourself.
S:
OK. I studied music
and I’m in the business for almost 25 years now. I’m in charge
for the major productions of the well known companies.
A: Are you an Elvis
fan ?
S: No, I’m not. But
after listening to his music more and more I became one. I have
worked for nearly every major artist in the music business.
And after listening to his work I can tell you he is the best.
A: hey let me know
a name.
P: Lenny Kravitz,
Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, simply all of them but
please understand that I don’t want to go into more details.
A:
ok.ok.
S:
Talking about Elvis and his work you must understand that a
soundboard is an bad recording with missing channels, no echo
- simply nothing. It makes it sound even worse than it really
was that night. Any other artist would never allow you to listen
to some of his soundboard recordings. Even not Pavarotti would
do that and now the people compare stuff like that with a professional
done recording like the Aloha concert. Together with the yellow
press this made him look bad in his later days. But that’s wrong.
When I heard the material
for the first time I was impressed how good he was. His band
must feature the best musicians in the world. They did a great
job. Elvis was an outstanding entertainer and because of my
knowledge I can tell you there is or was no one like him and
I’m proud to work on a CD containing one of his concerts.
A: Tell us how it's
possible that it sounds so great, so real, as if you were sitting
in the hall watching Elvis. That’s how it really feels.
S: ok you want to
hear the full story ?
A: yes the fans want
to know every dirty detail lol
S: ok but that's a
long story - you will fall asleep
A:
nooo it’s so exciting.
S:
Ok, but I warned you.
At
first we got a tape, I mean a cassette which was circulating.
It had a bad sound full of cuts in the songs and the producer
asked me what I could do with this and my answer was simple:
nothing ! The sound is too bad and i suppose it would be better
to take out the songs with the missing parts. The producer said
they want to keep it historical correct. No fake, ok I said
to him - maybe you want to sing the missing parts by yourself
??? lol
A: by yourself - lol.
oh I know this tape someone says that he will it bring out on
CD.
S:
really ? but this tape is not even worth a cdr. ok, later on
we got another tape being much more complete and in better sound
quality. So we decided to work on that one.
You must know I’m
not a normal sound engineer. I’m an expert on audio restauration
and that’s how we started: with a full audio restoration
process.
A: Oh you have done
such a great job on that concert.
S:
oh you are satisfied with the result ? I'm not !
A: whaaaaat ???? it's
great !
S: You still have
some hiss on some sequences, well it’s only a soundboard and
we want to leave the sound open .Otherwise when you'd remove
all the hiss you'd have very dry and flat sound. It’s such a
nice concert and I wish they'd have recorded it on a 16 track
machine.
A:
I'd compare it to other releases from that tour like "Cut
'em down to size" or the "Deep Down South".
S: oh, I don’t know
that first one but I know the South CD.
A: the "South"
sounds like Elvis is singing in a tunnel.
S: oh that’s because
they simply put a lot of echo on it. But don’t be unfair: we
both don’t know how their original tape sounded - maybe they
did a great job. But what they don’t have is a real room
simulation.
A: ahh that’s what
it makes sounding that full, so real.
S:
what we do is, before we create the sound, after restoring the
tape, we do a lot of research on the concert hall. We found
out the actual size, we looked where the stage was - we got
this from a book by a guy called Christopher Brown - and we
found out which material was used to build the stage was. we
also included for the simulation process the material of the
walls.
A: you did
that?
S:
yep, that’s very important - it sounds completely different
wood, metal or stone! Believe me.
A : I know so now
I know what you mean by saying "historical correct"
and if I understand you right you have the possibility to make
Elvis sound as if he'd be singing in the Wembley arena ?
S:
absolutely. So
what you have on the CD now is how it really sounded that night
not like any other soundboard and the people who were there
will be amazed to meet Elvis again after all this years if they
will ever get the hands on this concert.
A: This is really
never done before.
S: Yeah never done
before. The producer told me about this - what about the comedian,
wasn’t he funny lol?
A:
Yeees, indeed. Did you know that the people nowadays often talk
bad
about him ???
S:
Bad - Why ?
A:
Oh this is a looong story.
I will tell you when you have more time to listen. Once more
I have to admit that the new CD is a must for every real collector
and I’m glad to have it in my collection after all the years.
S: Did the producer
tell you that we gave Jackie the same treatment as the show
itself ? that you have the same feeling ? Oops, time for me
to go :-)
A:
what will you do right now…???
S: I have to leave
to buy this new remix CD - what is the name of it ?
A:
A little less conversation…
S: you got it ;-)
A: The CD you created
will be a classical release in a few years, be proud of it!!!
S: Oh I’m proud of
it and I hope the fans will enjoy it. One last comment before
I walk out of the door:
Did you hear "Polk
Salad Annie" ? If you listen to this track you will know
that we had the best sounding bass on this release you have
ever heard before. I really love the sound it blows you away.
The drum solo or the
end of the Kahane show - we have his end title music. You hear
the reaction of the audience when the show begins with the "2001
Theme" . You can feel the excitement of the crowd.
A:
ok. Let's stop for today. Thank you for taking the time and
telling us all your secrets now I understand even more how good
this CD is. We really got hot insider information from you !
S:
It was a pleasure for me and I tried not to be too technical...
There is something
I want to tell you…
I also
never mention my own name on the restroom lol
( this is an insider
you will understand when you listen to the CD)
